Three Strikes And Governor Christie Is Out

The Christie stuff that Matthews had wasn’t nearly as reveling as the stuff on the Rachael Maddow show.  She had a way of stating things in conceise, focused terms.  Three strikes and Governor Christie is out of the political running.  First of all his poll numbers are way down.  57% of the republicans say they could never picture themselves voting for the NY governor at some point down the line, as opposed to only 32% who would.   I believe that leaves a remaining eleven percent who haven’t made up their minds.  Christie is no longer popular as governor of his own state.  Netenyahoo is trailing four points in the Israeli election, but some say even if the Lecude party doesn’t have a majority in parliament, that he could still be voted back in – if the minority parties are unable to get together.  But it heartens me to hear that Netenyahoo’s numbers have declined.  Christie has three strikes against him.  Strike one was Jeb Bush, who has gotten all the donation funds that would otherwise have gone to Christie.   The only people who are lower in the polls than Christie are Donald Trump and Carley Feurina, of California.   But then there is a finger of Bridgegate haunting him.  Because there was this political operative close to Christie, whom he sent to New Hamphire to work on his campaign in that state, since the belief is that Christie will never win in Iowa.  But the problem is that this same operative was the messenger guy Christie used to convey to the Port Authority guy (who strangely is still not saying much that we know of) to close down the Washington Bridge.  So you have this corrupt guy right in the heart of your campaign for President.  And they say “Unfortunately - - Christie has no Plan B”.   Then we have a new scandal, this Exxon deal with the courts.  The media hasn’t talked about this.   The Court was on the verge of making an announcement of a nine Billion with a B - - fine against Exxon for highly polluting refineries and such, which is the first thing you see driving in from New York and it stinks to high heave.  Christie asked the judge that this ruling be “delayed” and the next thing you know the fine is cut to 250 Million.   This is a tiny fraction of the original fine.  What rabbit did Christie pull out of a hat to accomplish this.  Some people want to institute a “loser pays court costs” or whatever in law suits.  But if you have a corrupt system where you don’t believe you’ll get a fair shake if you go to trial with your lawsuit- - you may be intimidated from going forward.  Now there are is a “comments period” and I imagine that scads of “the general public” will raise an uproar over what a travesty of justice this is- - that Exxon should get off virtually Scott free.   It raises the obvious question of “Just what did the Governor have to promise to make this happen?”  And just what is the relation between Christie and Exxon oil to begin with.

Rand Paul seems serious about wanting ex felons to be able to get a job, and so he recommends what we’ve already have done in California with Proposition 49 and reduce certain crimes on the books to misdemeanors permanently.  He talked of these “enterprise zones” where businesses pay no Federal tax on profits.  Rand Paul says “this will reward the productive business and not just anybody”.    Paul would rather just see certain taxes not collected to begin with rather than make the round trip from the tax payer’s wallets to Washington and back.   Paul is so sweeping in his stance to restore civil liberties - - that he naturally appeals to young people.   I’ve learned that there is in general “a race to have the cheapest currency” when a higher priced dollar, which is what we are having now with the Euro on a near one for one basis, helps people traveling overseas, and it also makes imports cheaper.  And if they are cheaper then we should be less afraid of terrifs cutting in to “commerce” because “The American People” will still be able to afford the goods they want.  But the internationalist corporatists - - - want us to be more like China with as cheap of currency as possible.   This is true even though a higher valued dollar would encourage foreign investment in this country as interest rates rose and would thus be more attractive to foreigners looking for a place for their money.   I personally wish the Federal Reserve would allow interest rates to rise “naturally”.  And the thing is- - - credit card rates are already in excess of fifteen percent, and student loans are in excess of six or seven percent.  It’s not as if “The American people” are prospering from the four billion dollar giveway to big banks at zero percent.   But it’s as if the Federal Reserve is held hostage at gun point by the big investment banks- - because like Hans putting his finger in the dike, the Feds are the only people propping up the stock market- - - which is the place of preference for Rich people these days.

There is a saying that “If things aren’t getting any better, they’re probably getting worse”.  The democrats have looked in vain for signs things were “getting better” and that this tea party juggernaut which began in April of 2009 is easing back.  Back in those days a lot of tea party people were anti war and foreign intervention.  Back then also most tea party people wanted the Federal Reserve to be audited, and to crack down on Wall Street crooks and giveaways to the big investment banks.  Neither of these things are true right now.   Also the supposed “demographic time bomb” that was supposed to bail out Democratic hopes- - seems not to exist.  Republicans on the radio claim that the gender gap all but disappeared last November.  Is this true?   And you would think that is two-thirds of the states were in the hammerlock of Republicans than two thirds of the people ARE Republican and one third are democrats.  But this too is not the case.  The people at large are at least one third “Independent”.   And then we are told that “The Republicans are splintering off into various factions and that the Republicans no longer have a unified message or program”.  Once again you have things which - - “hypothetically” should be of a great help to the democrats, but aren’t.  Also we see the results of a Gallop poll that states “most Americans are unhappy with all branches of the government”.   Hypothetically - - this too should work in favor of the Democrats since the Republicans practically “Own” government now.  But despite all of these “facts”, which are supposed to help the democrats- - as far as I can see- - politically - - things are bad and getting worse all the time.  Why is this?  I don’t know.  Hypothetically - -  (aren’t you getting sick of that word) there ARE various articulate democrats in congress which should rise to the occasion and run for national office.  I can think of two of them, who have never been mentioned.  One is Chuck Schummer.  His famous statement lately is tht Obama made a horrible mistake rolling out his Affordable Health Care act when he did because it squandered political capital- - and set the tea party in motion.  My number one candidate, whom I believe should run for higher office is Dick Derbin of Illinois.  He is the brightest, most articulate man in congress, who is grossly underrated.    One thing hurting the democrats now is that while the Republicans have set about the difficult business of selecting a presidential nominee from the fifteen or so applying for the job, the Democrats are wedded to the idea that it’s Hillary or bust.  So naturally Hillary Clinton has been the almost universal target to aim at by aspiring Republicans.

 Leo Le Port does not use a ribbon microphone the way I’ve heard that radio people do.  Ribbons have an inherent figure eight  sound pick-up pattern.   Beatles at the BBC used a ribbon microphone- - and Ringo’s drums don’t sound all that bad.  Ribbin microphones are natural sounding but the problem of course is they blow out easily.  Magnetic microphones in my opinion are not as good for most purposes as ceramic microphones, which are smaller anyhow.  Ceramics have a better S / N ratio.   Magnetics- - or Dynamic Microphones- - tend to be bass heavy in playing back a recorded conversation in a room sounding rumbly.  But they can be used to advantage in certain cases.  They work great for recording electric guitars live off the speaker.  They are great for recording passing trains- - say a couple of hundred yards away- - and the horn really comes out good.  And they are great for purring cats - - especially big cats.    Most directional microphones- - - I believe, just have the out of phase stuff fed back into the system so it cancels out sounds from the rear in that cartioid or “heart” shape.  And then there are the spiked hyper-cartioid microphones.  Of course it doesn’t take a degree in sound engineering to realize that a lot of the sound of certain engines is because of the way the ways engines are mounted in older cars- - and not from any inherent quality of the engine itself.  There is a new Napster service for downloading pirated music called “Popcorn” or something.  Remind me to try it.

OK  this is Pi day or March 14, 2015.  Let’s jump right in with Melinda Lee.  We had coffee break early today.  Melinda Lee was doing “truffles”, which sound awful and expensive, in addition to being awfully expensive, and even if you do like them they have to be fresh and go bad really fast.  The other thing was the vertical spit you cook things like roast beef on.  I didn’t know they routinely shaved beef off while it was cooking because that meat is done, leaving the meat underneath to be cooked.   We had mushroom soup with quesedias and a semi-pasta salad, with a banana for desert.  Let’s talk about the weather.  We are running easily twenty degrees above mormal for March and that is just plain”not normal”.  I heard they were going to begin tomorrow's LA Marathon at six thirty- - before sunrise and two hours early.  We have had grossly above normal temperatures all calendar year but notably since March, at least from the third on.  The weather people predicted we’d have two cooler days on Tuesday and Wednesday when I wore a long shirt both days.   And even when they said “we might get a few rain drops” on Wednesday, that’s just what we got- - a few rain drops.  But though there was a massive rain front- - it wasn’t cold.  But with their computer projections now at the beginning of the week they can predict a scorcher of a heat wave for late in the week.  It’s predicted to be 92 today and even the evenings range into the high seventies where ideally you’d like it a little cooler in the evenings to “cool off” a little.